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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Beyond Walking in Circles: Mobilizing our power via *resistance consciousness* |
Current rating: 0 |
by damn fool
(No verified email address) |
24 Sep 2001
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"Resistance consciousness" is a way of doing things where individual people (especially including english speakers around the world!) can work alone or in the company of their immediate affinity groups, to promote sustained, critical awareness towards other *strategically challenged* individuals across the spectrum of American thinking. |
In the words of a crucial online newsletter called "Counter Punch" the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Centers in New York City carried out an attack that certainly went way beyond their expectations (and apparently beyond the comprehension of many "security" personnell as well). Though horrific with their ends, they were able to learn a way to get the serious attention of North American policy makers; one that could make an impact far beyond the seemingly impossible routes like pleas to the UN, et al.
Isn't it time that ALL concerned with u.s./nato foreign policy learned ANOTHER way to get the attention of Americans (and their "leaders" and multinational alliances) in the kind of way that will bring about serious policy changes once and for all?
List of topics:
Becoming proactive, finally
Newspeak games
Spaces we can mobilize into now
Beyond mainline AND "alternative" media
Listing of potentials you can do now!
Resistance consciousness, a method of sustainable challenge
Becoming proactive, finally
We don't have to always subordinate ourselves as passive listeners and followers of information. Given the increasingly heavy situation enfolding before us about terrorism and war in the u.s. and other countries, you may want to take a more proactive path.
You don't have to continually walk in circles at "protests" or "demonstrations" nor do you have to limit yourself to writing letters to "your representatives" and such. Nor do you have to even limit yourself to the confines of political interests in the Left/Right/Center/or so-called "radical". Instead, you can go beyond these often ultimately stale and tired ways of doing things; you CAN be PROACTIVE in a way where YOU take a leading position. Where YOU are your own veritable "black bloch", "clown bloch", or whatever other model you enjoy partaking in. AND you can go BEYOND even those with your own creations! This article is about ways individuals wishing to act as excellently as posible may go about a *direct action* of sharing the crucial information and paradigms you've been learning in this and related milieus, and finally putting into various levels of practice!
Sharing our awareness of u.s. foreign policy and domestic media control with people who don't know of such is one PROACTIVE way we can educate and inform the great majority whom are now being groomed to accept war and its domestic consequences.
There are a host of ways we can share our knowledge. One is the Internet. Another is talk radio and TV (whether going on *live* or misleading filterers of those ideas they seek to keep extremely marginalized). Still another is going door to door in neighborhoods and towns which don't have a serious challenger presense (you Black Blochers want a REAL challenge?! Something where you can FIND success?!!!!)
The Internet is still a tool to be reckoned with, and is the one I will focus on here.
We can still utilize the Net provided we understand a few basic concepts about the way the majority are kept in line and kept apathetic, or at best, hysterified implementers of official policy. First of all, we must understand at least a little about the way policy maker culture operates and how the *necessary illusions* of the masses are kept in check. Read this speech by Noam Chomsky for insights, specifically the first two pages:
www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6904/Chom1.html
Newspeak games
Words like "reputable" and "disreputable" are examples of *Newspeak* in our thought control democracy which we also need to be aware of. Categorically, all challenger media/individuals are targets of being labeled as "disreputable" media, for example, and automatically swept off into the "crazy" margins. One way to undermine such is to follow the lead of Chomsky's methods: quote "reputable" media and icons with their own words via "reputable" sources. Another way is to bring the ex-Trusters of Truth into the awareness of people. It is possible to promote the serious thought of the *strategically challenged* but you have to understand where the openings are.
How about the idea of "losing connection" with the American people, as one liberal implementer of policy recently brought up on an NPR radio station. Could he have been using Newspeak language for the "danger" of seeking to educate the majority of the fooled masses by remaining within their frames of references--i.e. not getting "too radical"? That is, not "straying" from THE method of keeping us all hyped up and atomized via manipulation of emotionally potent oversimplifications in which we are often not aware of?
Okay, I digress.
Spaces we can mobilize into now
If we remain within the virtual choir camps of that which we are used to, we are dangerously confining ourselves. Indy Media and other Leftist websites, though valuable, cannot be our only area of sustained speaking up. (pardon me, my ability to articulate myself verbally is not exactly smoothly flowing) We must venture beyond what we know and are used to. One area we may make a difference could be on college talk forums. Another one is certainly small city newspaper "chat" forums--especially those in off-the-beaten-track towns where *you just don't hear about ideas beyond c.n.n.*
Beyond mainline AND "alternative" media
Here's a list of things that caught my attention while listening to "Democracy Now" and NPR today. I noted several methods that were being used which need serious attention.
A) get beyond single issues
B) demystify policy maker mindsets in general instead of attacking individuals like Kissinger (remember, lying to congress and other reps of the public is routine, as we learned in several documentaries including "The Panama Deception" and "Waco: The Rules of Engagement")
C) give history of why weak groups sometimes resort to terrorism when "reputable" outlets prove impossible.
D) list helpful info that the feds use for their own people regarding potential terrorist strikes. I.E. the mayour of San Francisco was reportedly told not to fly on Sep. 11 because it might be dangerous. Perhaps someone could make a calendar listing possible dates for terrorist attacks (re: anniversaries of illegal acts by u.s. military), and give it out to travellers while doing public outreach.
E) list alternatives to Givens on what *we* can do to stop terrorism (my idea is to expose the long history of nato/u.s. breaking international law; Chomsky lists quite a few examples in _Necessary Illusions_ --sometimes online in its entirety at zmag.com.
Resistance consciousness, a method of sustainable challenge
F) teach resistance consciousness as spoken word artist and American Indian social challenger John Trudell relates it (see following sites for help!)
www.dickshovel.com/JTT.html
audio:
"current events":
nativecalling.org/archives/1999/jul/0713199.ram
"Alcatraz 30 years later"
nativecalling.org/archives/list.html#04081999
(note how biased native calling is against independent movement, and that John does not directly challenge nativecalling.org manipulations)
http://www.hollowear.com/words/circus2000.html
on:
Taos Poetry Circus 2000
Bill Nevins talks with John Trudell about Zen and the Art of Resistance
On Judi Bari
http://www.finearts.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/sov/trudbari.html
---
http://www.JohnTrudell.com/news/native_peoples.html
"native peoples" (magazine?)
NOTE: THIS IS QUITE CONVOLUTED AS IT GOES AND LOOK AT HOW THEY DIDN'T LISTEN TO HIM...
*******
continuing list of what we can do:
G) demystify word games/Newspeak on a large scale
(others have done this kind of thing in other milieus. I think I saw Peter Breggin do this in his challenge to medical psychiatry, in dictionary format)
H) demystify c.i.a. (et al) method of working with criminal/"disreputable" elements
I) provide pictures of what war actually looks like to masses. Remember, during Vietnam war the orthodox media was reprimanded for showing too many grisly pictures, which supposedly aided the anti-war mood at home. Now, u.s. media and its subsidiaries will certainly be as obedient as they were in the Gulf. Undermine this control by going to sites like www.rawa.org now, downloading their heavy duty pictures and save them for publishing when we're in the middle of that insanity abroad...better yet, publish them now before these heavy new laws bring on "legal" silence upon us.
J) critique beyond the confines of ideology by exploring the ideas of the alleged methodological anarchists (i.e. www.anarchymag.org), including Raoul Vaneigem (www.nothingness.org/SI/), Ken Knabb and Public Secrets (www.slip.net/~knabb/), Feral Faun (www.spunk.org/library/pubs/ajoda/38/sp000770.txt), and Bob Black (www.inspiracy.com/black/rants.html).
REPUTABLE RESOURCES
One VERY charismatic ex-orthodox (and reputable) voice to be reckoned with:
John Stockwell (www.thirdworldtraveller.com/Stockwell/John_Stockwell.html)
Reporters' Collective (via www.Africa2000.com/) |
